India-funded projects in the neighbourhood received the bulk of the allocation for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) under the Union Budget presented by Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka, which has a number of India-funded projects, has received 2450 million Indian rupees (INR), an improvement of INR 950 million over last year’s funding of INR 1500 million, according to The Hindu. 

India had bailed out Sri Lanka when its economy crashed and has provided grants and a line of credit worth $4 billion.

Nepal secured an allocation of INR 7000 million, which is a jump of INR 1500 million from previous year’s allocation of INR 5500 million. 

Seychelles, which had an allocation of INR 100 million, has also received a boost in funding with the infusion of INR 300 million.

Meanwhile, Bhutan, the largest recipient of the annual allocation under the MEA, has seen a dip in funding by INR 3320.2 million. Total funding for Bhutan this year stands at INR 20,685.6 million. 

Bhutan and India are close economic partners and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Thimphu last week, when the two sides cleared 61 projects amounting to INR 49,580 million. The slight reduction in the annual allocation therefore does not indicate a reduction in funding for projects in Bhutan.

Dips in funding were seen for Myanmar, Mauritius, Bangladesh, and Mongolia.

Conflict-torn Myanmar, which had an allocation of INR 4000 million last year, received INR 2500 million this year. Mauritius, with an allocation of INR 3700 million, has received INR 907.9 million less than the previous year. The allocation for Mongolia, which earlier received ₹70 million, has been scaled down to 50 million Indian rupees.

Allocation for Bangladesh has dropped by INR 800 million to INR 1200 million. Both Afghanistan and the Maldives, with INR 2000 million and INR 4000 million, respectively, have secured the same allocation as last year.

The Budget also allocated an additional INR 50 million for MEA’s ‘Aid for Cultural and Heritage Projects’, bringing the total allocation to 150 million Indian rupees.

Source: The Hindu

--Agencies